My Neighbour Totoro Tickets at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, London
My Neighbour Totoro is at the Gillian Lynne Theatre on Drury Lane until Sunday 3 January 2027, when it closes. That date was recently brought forward by a week, and the final weeks run through Christmas, so it will get very busy then. The show itself lasts about 2 hours 30 minutes, including a 20-minute interval.
From £182 hours 30 minutes, with an intervalAges 6 and up
A play at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, near HolbornCloses 3 January 2027
Real people on the phone
020 7193 9050 · Monday to Saturday 8am to 8pm, Sunday 10am to 8pm
Help choosing your seat
Who's My Neighbour Totoro For?
Families with children aged 6 and over. It's a gentle story about two sisters, told with some very large puppets.
Fans of the film. It's the same story, told in English, with the puppets and a live band in place of the animation.
Grown-ups going on their own, too. If you liked War Horse, which played this same theatre when it was the New London, this is puppetry on the same scale, and Mervyn Millar of the puppetry team worked on both.
Not for you if you want a musical full of big numbers, or a story that moves fast. It's a play with music, and it takes its time.
What Tickets Cost
Most seats cost around £45 to £120, and premium seats start from around £140. The cheapest tickets are around £20, and the best seats go up to around £180, or around £200 on the busiest dates at October half term and Christmas.
Until 17 December, Wednesday and Thursday evenings are the cheapest nights to book: every seat is around £60 or less. That doesn't apply in the busiest weeks.
Every price includes the theatre's £1.70 restoration levy. For a group of ten or more, call us and we'll find you seats together.
About My Neighbour Totoro at the Gillian Lynne Theatre
My Neighbour Totoro is Hayao Miyazaki's 1988 Studio Ghibli film, adapted for the stage by Tom Morton-Smith and directed by Phelim McDermott. It's presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company and Joe Hisaishi, with Improbable and Nippon TV.
It's a play with music rather than a musical. Hisaishi's score from the film is played live all the way through by a band on raised platforms on the stage, with a solo singer, Ai Ninomiya, who sings in Japanese and English. Everything else is performed in English, and adult actors play the two girls.
Basil Twist designed and directed the puppets, and they were built at Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Totoro comes in several sizes, and the whole company works the puppets as the Kazego, or wind spirits.
This is the same production that opened at the Barbican in October 2022, broke the Barbican's record for a single day's ticket sales and went back there for a second run in 2023. It moved to the Gillian Lynne on 8 March 2025. In 2023 it won six Olivier Awards, including Best Entertainment or Comedy Play and Best Director.
There are pyrotechnics, smoke and haze, some loud noises, and some scenes are set in a hospital with a sick parent. Some of the very large puppets come out into the audience.
What's My Neighbour Totoro About?
Sisters Satsuki and Mei move to the Japanese countryside with their father, to be near their mother, who is in hospital. In the woods around their new house they meet the soot sprites, the Catbus and Totoro, a huge, sleepy forest spirit.
Performance Schedule
My Neighbour Totoro plays eight times a week: Tuesday to Saturday at 7pm, with matinees at 2pm on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. There's no Monday performance.
| Day | Matinee | Evening |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | - | - |
| Tuesday | - | 7pm |
| Wednesday | - | 7pm |
| Thursday | 2pm | 7pm |
| Friday | - | 7pm |
| Saturday | 2pm | 7pm |
| Sunday | 2pm | - |
For October half term there's an extra matinee on Tuesday 27 October at 2pm.
Christmas and New Year run to a different pattern:
- Tuesday 22 and Wednesday 23 December: 2pm and 7pm
- Thursday 24 December: 2pm only
- Friday 25 and Saturday 26 December: no performances
- Sunday 27 December: 1pm and 6pm
- Tuesday 29 December: 2pm and 7pm
- Thursday 31 December: 2pm only
- Friday 1 January: 5pm only
- Saturday 2 January: 2pm and 7pm
- Sunday 3 January: 2pm, the final performance
The run ends over Christmas and New Year, which are already the most expensive dates to book, so book early rather than late.
Best Seats for My Neighbour Totoro
The best seats are the middle of the Stalls, rows D to M. You're close enough to see faces, and far enough back to take in the whole width of the stage.
For children, book central Circle rows C and D, where it's easy for a small person to see over the row in front. The Circle is up 114 steps with no lift, so if stairs are a problem, stay in the Stalls.
The puppets come right out to the front rows, the Catbus included, so sit a few rows back with a nervous child.
Every level is broken down in the Tickets & Best Seats tab. Call us on 020 7193 9050 and we'll tell you what's left on your date.
Cast and Creative Team
As listed in September 2026, Victoria Chen plays Mei and Helen Chong plays Satsuki. Dai Tabuchi plays their father, Jacqueline Tate is Granny, and Ai Ninomiya is the singer. Those three have been in every London company since 2022.
The full company and creative team are in the Cast & Creatives tab.
Book Your My Neighbour Totoro Tickets
This is the last chance to see My Neighbour Totoro in London before the run ends in the new year, and the final weeks fall over Christmas, the busiest time of the year to find seats. All-in pricing, so the price you see is what you pay. If you'd rather talk the seats through first, we're on the phone.
Find tickets • Call us on 020 7193 9050
My Neighbour Totoro FAQs
The last performance is at 2pm on Sunday 3 January 2027, at the Gillian Lynne Theatre on Drury Lane.
The running time is about 2 hours 30 minutes, including a 20-minute interval. A 7pm performance finishes at about 9:30pm, and a 2pm matinee at about 4:30pm.
Most seats are around £45 to £120 all-in, with the cheapest from around £20. They vary from date to date, so call us on 020 7193 9050 for yours.
Ages 6 and over. Under-4s aren't admitted, including babies on a lap, and anyone under 16 must sit with an adult aged 18 or over. Everyone needs their own ticket.
It's recommended for 6 and over. There are loud bangs, pyrotechnics, smoke and haze, the big puppets come out among the audience, and the girls' mother is ill in hospital for much of the story.
It's a play with music, rather than a full musical, so the story is carried by the actors and the puppets, with the film's music played live around them.
English. The singer, Ai Ninomiya, sings in both Japanese and English.
It's the same story, on stage, with puppets instead of animation. Adult actors play the two girls, and the stage version has more talking and more of the other characters, so it runs nearly an hour longer than the film.
At the Gillian Lynne Theatre, 166 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5PW. The entrance is round the corner on Parker Street. Holborn and Covent Garden tubes are both about five minutes' walk.
Six, in 2023: Best Entertainment or Comedy Play, Best Director for Phelim McDermott, and Best Set, Costume, Lighting and Sound Design.
There isn't one, so wear whatever you're comfortable in for two and a half hours.
Latecomers are let in at a suitable break in the performance, which could be a while into the first act. Arrive 15 to 20 minutes before, no later.
Yes, all at 2pm: BSL-interpreted on Sunday 11 October, relaxed on Sunday 8 November, audio described on Saturday 5 December and captioned on Sunday 6 December. They're booked through the theatre's own access team, not through us.
Tickets and Best Seats for My Neighbour Totoro
Tickets run from around £20 to around £180 all-in, and up to around £200 on the busiest dates at half term and Christmas. Wednesday and Thursday evenings are cheaper until mid-December.
Both levels start at row A, so check the level as well as the row.
Stalls or Circle? Start with the stairs
The Stalls are reached by lift. The Circle has no lift and is 114 steps up, or 24 if you ride the lift as far as it goes. If anyone in your party would struggle with that, book the Stalls.
Booking for children
Ask for the middle of Circle rows C and D, as central as you can get. The seat backs are high and the rows are steep, so a child sees over the head in front.
In the Stalls, avoid the few seats in row N that sit behind the stairwell walls. They're fine for most adults, but a low rail sits right in a child's eyeline.
The puppets come out to the front of the Stalls, and the Catbus comes right up to the front rows. For a nervous child, sit further back.
The top-price seats
The middle of Stalls rows D to M, and on busier dates the very middle of rows G to J costs more again. It's close, and the whole stage is in front of you rather than around you.
In the Circle, the middle of rows A to E sees the whole stage at once and nothing hangs over it. If the safety rail bothers you, take row E first, then C, then D. The rail gets in the way on row A.
The best value
The ends of Stalls rows K to M go at a lower price and still see well. They're often where pairs and singles are left on a busy date.
Stalls row T sees what the middle of row S sees, for a band less. Book T and skip central S.
The back of the Stalls is under the Circle from row P, but here that takes nothing off the stage. It's cheaper because it's further away.
In the Circle, the ends of rows C to E are the best cheap seats in the theatre. Take the seat next to the aisle rather than the aisle seat itself.
What we'd avoid
The worst seats in the theatre are at the far end of Circle rows A to C on the high-numbered side, where you see very little of the stage. They're cheap for that reason, and if they're all that's left on your date, call us and we'll look at other dates with you.
In the Stalls, the middle of row I sits too low behind row H, so heads get in the way, and about the last four seats at either end of a row can lose part of the stage. A handful of seats in Circle row A and Stalls row H are tight on legroom, and we'll steer you round them when you book.
The front section of the Stalls is closest to the action and the least comfortable, with upright seats and not much legroom. The seats in the rear Stalls are more comfortable.
Call us on 020 7193 9050 and we'll find the best seats left on your date.
Seating plan
Dates & tickets
Getting to the Gillian Lynne Theatre
The Gillian Lynne Theatre is at 166 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5PW, between Covent Garden and Holborn. The address is Drury Lane, but the door is on Parker Street, the turning off it, so head for the corner of Parker Street.
Holborn, on the Central and Piccadilly lines, and Covent Garden, on the Piccadilly line, are both about five minutes' walk. Tottenham Court Road is about ten minutes and is the nearest station with step-free access.
The 8 and 188 stop on Drury Lane itself, about three minutes from the door. The 1, 59, 68, 91, 243 and SL6 stop on Kingsway by Holborn station, the 98 on High Holborn, and the 9, 15, 23, 26, 76, 87, 172 and 341 a little further on at the Aldwych.
There's a car park directly underneath the theatre, entered from Parker Mews off Drury Lane.
Arrive 15 to 20 minutes before, no later. Bags are searched on the way in, and the auditorium is three floors up, so everyone going to the Stalls takes the lift.
There are two levels, the Stalls and the Circle. The lifts go to the Stalls. The Circle is stairs only, 114 steps from the ground floor, or 24 if you take the lift as far as it goes.
Everything else, including access and where to eat nearby, is in our Gillian Lynne Theatre guide.
Address
166 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5PW
Nearest Tube
Holborn
My Neighbour Totoro Cast
The company as listed in September 2026:
- Victoria Chen as Mei
- Helen Chong as Satsuki
- Dai Tabuchi as Tatsuo, their father
- Phyllis Ho as Yasuko, their mother
- Jacqueline Tate as Granny Ogaki
- Steven Nguyen as Kanta
- Sango Tajima as Miss Hara
- Kumiko Mendl as Nurse Emiko
- Natsumi Kuroda as Tsukiko
- Jamie Zubairi as Hiroshi
- Ai Ninomiya as Kaze No Koe, the singer
Eero Chen Liu, Gun Suen and Sango Tajima are the principal puppeteers for the three Totoros, and Gun Suen is Puppetry Captain. Everyone in the company also works the puppets as one of the Kazego. The Kazego puppeteers are Karen Barredo, Melisa Camba, Rachel Clare Chan, Jeffrey Chekai, Chui Yen, Victor Itang, Gabriel S. Janoras, Yui Minari, Michelle Miners and Richard P. Peralta. The swings are Ronnie Lee, Wenhsin Lee, Amber Lin, Sera Maehara, Bai Zhijin and Si Rawlinson, who is also Movement Captain.
Dai Tabuchi, Jacqueline Tate and Ai Ninomiya have been in the show since it opened at the Barbican in 2022.
Creative team
Adapted for the stage, with English lyrics, by Tom Morton-Smith. Music by Joe Hisaishi, who wrote the film's score and is an executive producer. Directed by Phelim McDermott. Production design by Tom Pye, costumes by Kimie Nakano, lighting by Jessica Hung Han Yun and sound by Tony Gayle, all four of whom won Olivier Awards for the show. Puppetry designed and directed by Basil Twist, with Mervyn Millar as puppetry associate. Movement by You-Ri Yamanaka, sound effects and soundscape by Nicola T. Chang, video by Finn Ross and Andrea Scott, and orchestrations by Will Stuart. Casting by Hannah Miller.
Produced by Kenichi Yoda and Griselda Yorke, with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Improbable, Nippon TV and Studio Ghibli.
My Neighbour Totoro Reviews
My Neighbour Totoro was reviewed when it opened at the Barbican in October 2022, and nobody gave it fewer than three stars. The critics agreed on the puppets and split on the pace.
The Stage's Sam Marlowe gave it five stars: "It's unadulterated joy: a huge, healing hug of a show, generous and utterly beguiling." (5/5, 19 October 2022)
At WhatsOnStage, Theo Bosanquet called the staging "genuine jaw-on-the-floor stuff", and in the same review found it very slow (4/5, 19 October 2022). In the Financial Times, Sarah Hemming called it a "gorgeous, uplifting tribute to the link between theatre and the imaginative realm of children's play" (5/5, 19 October 2022).
The one three-star review came from Nick Curtis in the Evening Standard, who loved the look of it and found the plot thin (3/5, 19 October 2022).
It's the same production at the Gillian Lynne. Mei and Satsuki are now played by Victoria Chen and Helen Chong, and Dai Tabuchi, Jacqueline Tate and Ai Ninomiya, whom the critics saw in 2022, are still in the company. Audiences have been warmer than the critics, and it went on to win six Olivier Awards. The full round-up is in What the Critics Say.
Gallery
My Neighbour Totoro
Gillian Lynne Theatre